Back-to-school supply lists perplex some parents

In an age of scaling back, local school-supply lists can seem a bit behind the times.

The lists include far more than the expected pencils, paper and folders. Today's elementary students are asked to bring markers, small plastic bags, facial tissue, fluorescent highlighters and, in some cases, computer headphones and flash drives, to name just a few items.

The suggested amount for each item is often high, too. Many schools ask younger students to bring six to eight glue sticks, two to four boxes of crayons (24 crayons per box) and anywhere from 20 to 36 pencils.

With money tight because of the economy, the sheer volume of materials on the lists has prompted some parents to ask: Is all this really necessary?

"To take just one example, the students are supposed to bring their own pencil sharpeners. That means there will be about 20 pencil sharpeners in a lot of these classrooms. Isn't that a bit of overkill?" said Sandy Hauser, a Lake in the Hills parent who sends her children to Huntley Unit District 158 schools.

Local educators say that if an item appears on a school supply list, it will be needed during the school year.

"We don't ask students to bring stuff that will just sit in their desks," said Cindy Kalogeropoulos, principal of Grove Avenue Elementary School in Barrington.

Kalogeropoulos and other suburban principals said classroom activities are more complex than they were 15 years ago. Lessons are more active, more hands-on. Small "manipulatives" like pennies or cutout pieces of paper are often used to help develop problem-solving skills.

"When I was in school, we brought far fewer supplies, but we spent most of the time listening to the teacher lecture," said Rhonda Maciejewski, principal of Hannah Martin Elementary in Lake in the Hills. "It's not like that today."

Others pointed out that having an inventory of materials like pencils and crayons on hand enables teachers to replace things that get lost or broken during the course of the year.

"When you're talking about kids, crayons break, pencils break, folders get beat up," said Terri McHugh, community relations director for Schaumburg Elementary District 54. "As a parent, I often get notes in January telling me that my child has run out of this or that."

Suburban administrators stress, though, that parents who don't manage to secure every single item on the supply list, or who can't afford each item, shouldn't worry that their children will be at a disadvantage when school starts.

"Parents should do whatever they can," Kalogeropoulos said. "The school has ways to provide supplies to students who need them."

Parent-teacher groups at many schools in the suburbs have tried to make the school-supply hunt easier for parents by contracting with vendors who create supply kits.

Instead of scouring department stores for supplies, parents can write a check to the parent-teacher group and then pick up a kit a short while later stocked with everything on their schools' lists.

The cost of the kits varies. At Highlands Elementary School in Naperville, for example, the kits ranged from $37.50 to $51.

In some cases, such a program saves parents a few bucks. In most cases, it's a huge timesaver.

"I think convenience is the big factor," said Richard Schroeder, principal of Spring Trail Elementary School in Carol Stream. "I know with my kids, I pretty much broke even, moneywise, going from shopping myself to the kits. But it was so much easier than having to drive to this store and that store."

To help students in need, a number of retailers and social-service groups like the Carol Stream-based Humanitarian Service Project collect and donate supplies to schools all over the suburbs.

"We'll be collecting supplies through October," said Karole Kettering, founder of the Humanitarian Service Project. "We've already delivered enough supplies to fill a cargo van and a car to the county, which will distribute them to local schools. We don't want any child to go to school without the needed supplies."

At Hannah Martin, Maciejewski said officials rely on supplies donated by retailers and other sources to help those who need it.

Barrington's Grove Avenue School has tried to ease the financial burden of school-supply shopping by embarking on a reuse-and-recycle program, Kalogeropoulos said. The program began three years ago.

"First, the school collects money from parents and then does group purchasing of the materials to save some money," she said, estimating that parents of children in first through fifth grades at Grove spend about $40 on school supplies.

"Then, we've trained our teachers to reuse as many materials as possible from year to year," she said. "That way, families don't have to buy quite as much. We can never assume that there's an endless supply of money out there, especially these days."

Schroeder said that in his experience, teachers and administrators review lists each year specifically to make sure they're not too long or expensive.

"In fact, it was the parents who suggested we put flash drives on the list for our intermediate grades," Schroeder said. "They figured that would be the easiest way for their children to transport documents between school and home, so we put it on. If we were asking for something that simply did not get used during the year, I know I'd hear about it."

Supplies: Donations help equip needy children